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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29386407">Harry Potter and the Aftermath of Being Adopted at Forty Going On Seventeen</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/hymns_to_alien_stars/pseuds/hymns_to_alien_stars'>hymns_to_alien_stars</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Harry Potter and the Aftermath [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Discussion of Time Travel: Theory Practice Ethics, Family Dynamics, Gen, Parseltongue, Quidditch, Unspeakables (Harry Potter)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 07:48:20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,319</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29386407</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/hymns_to_alien_stars/pseuds/hymns_to_alien_stars</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens to time travellers who are adopted - into their biological family but also by the people who don't know them at all?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Harry Potter &amp; Charlus Potter, Harry Potter &amp; Fleamont Potter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Harry Potter and the Aftermath [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2154303</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>63</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Harry Potter and the Aftermath of Being Adopted at Forty Going On Seventeen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>! TW There's a potentially triggering theme of discussion raised for, like, a couple of paragraphs. Nothing graphic. Refer to the endnotes for specifics and feel free to skip it, it's not important for this particular part.</p><p>If you are wondering about consequences of the Horcrux removal - the scar stays but is actually healing and isn’t so noticeable now. Harry can still speak Parseltongue because it’s more fun this way. And for plot and author’s amusement reasons, of course.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>It’s Friday morning which meant that Fleamont was having breakfast at the house. More often, he spent his mornings “at work”, “studying”, (with Euphemia who Harry hadn’t met yet). Last Friday, Unspeakable Folly informed Harry that nor Fleamont, nor Charlus knew who he actually was because Henry Potter decided it was for the best. Meeting Fleamont’s eyes, Hary just couldn’t agree.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Given the three possibilities, one of which Fleamont knew was false, there were only the squib and the bastard theory, first one unlikely simply because of the secrecy inside the family.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At least, Kareena knew. Harry didn’t know if he could manage this cold calculating gaze from her - and, of course, Charlus.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>If Harry had to name one person he managed to make friends with in 1919, he’d have named Charlus. It started with Quidditch: Charlus wanted to make the team next year. What position? Doesn’t matter, they are all fun but maybe not the beater. Or not the keeper. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Chaser or seeker, then?” asked Harry, smiling, while they were going to the broom shed. The house was in the middle of nowhere so they could fly all they wanted - after Charlus finished something out of his homework for the day, and Harry suspected it was not the case since it was nine in the morning. Still.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Charlus opened the shed and showed Harry to the Quidditch set. “Bludgers here aren’t a real deal, mum put all sorts of safety charms on them,” he confessed, “The snitch is, though. Three speeds, and the bonus one makes it fly like crazy, even Fleamont can’t catch it and he was a seeker in his fourth year.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry, naturally, took it as a challenge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The broom was slower but the real issue was how less sensitive it was to his movements. Last time he played, in 2016, it felt like a broom obeyed his thoughts, not even his slight movements like Firebolt. This one wasn’t bad, he would just have to get used to it and maybe not do the things like fly inside the Quidditch Pitch stands and he will be alright.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They flew around for a minute but than the Captain Charlus assigned him to a goal posts and tried to put quffle through he hoops past Harry and avoid bludgers that were attacking them both too enthusiastically for Harry’s taste.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When two bludgers spead after Charlus, not letting him close the the goals, the boy had to admit defeat and lower the difficulty, even though it was “less fun”. After that, bludgers mostly hovered in the distance, every once in a once thoughtfully gliding closer to the players with no intention of hitting them: apparently, the option in the middle got broken in May but Charlus couldn’t tell the parents because he wasn’t supposed to touch Quidditch gear for a month after almost failing History of Magic and getting A in Potions. Charlus, apparently, was delighted to have proof that some people could get A on their </span>
  <em>
    <span>OWLs </span>
  </em>
  <span>for History of Magic and still be fine with lots of Os in other subjects. Harry was sympathetic to his plight and glad that his situation brought happiness - and permission to play Quidditch over the summer - to at least one person.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After Harry found out that his Keeper skills were mediocre at best even in 1919 and against a single inexperienced Chaster, Charlus freed the snitch, not noticing that it was on its bonus speed until it plumetted to the ground, digged a tunnel just beneath the surface and skyrocketed in the air. Harry had never saw a snitch behave this way. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s a special edition, 333rd World Cup,” explained Charlus. “Tony Silva said in an interview that he trained with a snitch like this.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry watched as the snitch took a zigzag dive and smacked into the goal post. “Uh-huh.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Charlus went defensive. “It worked fine in the beggining! But it goes more and more unpredictable every year. I swear, if you go after it, it will mock you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry went after it. He jumped on the broom and went after the snitch that, somehow sensing the chase, froze mid-air which was </span>
  <em>
    <span>very </span>
  </em>
  <span>uncharacteristic for a snitch. Maybe it’s cursed, thought Harry. He was slowly flying towards it, careful not to spook it, already feeling stupid. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Harry extended his hand, it leisurely - </span>
  <em>
    <span>mockingly</span>
  </em>
  <span> - moved out of his reach, performed a rude little dance and dashed away. The chase was on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ten minutes later, Harry was soaked in sweat, the sound of wind in his ears, his hair and clothes in a truly pathetic state, and he had a snitch in his hand. He felt fantastic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He never saw a snitch behave this way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry went down to meet Charlus, eyes wide in awe. “I think there’s something wrong with it,” he said, landing. “I’m gonna need my wand to check.”</span>
</p><p><span>The wand was in his room (he didn’t want to go to Olivanders and get it </span><em><span>again</span></em><span> just because of a</span> <span>Quidditch accident, and in case his future self would need it, after all). Charlus sat on his bed, watching Harry’s wand movements while he cast.</span></p><p>
  <span>Harry blinked. “Well, it isn’t cursed but there’s still something…” He could sense it, the snitch was heavier than it was supposed to be, it seemed more sentient that it was supposed to be on the pitch. He cast for possession and - bingo! “There’s a poltergeist in the snitch,” Harry said, blinking in surprise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Charlus bounced on the bed, excited. “Poltergeist? Like Peeves? Brilliant! I’ll write to Dorea about it, she’ll want to see it for sure!” He seemed even more delighted by the idea.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who is Dorea?” asked Harry, spelling the snitch from trying to break free of his hold while he was putting it back in the set.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Charlus tried to keep his voice nonchalance but failed. “Dorea Black. She is in Slytherin a year up, plays beater on the team. Seeker if Parkinson is out, they have a decent back-up beater. Last April, Parkinson got involved with some illegal dueling club - unofficial ones are forbidden, of course - and got banned for the rest of the year for performing dark spells and harming another student.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nice distraction manoeuvre, Charlus.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hold up, didn’t Dorea Black marry a Potter?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After sending a letter Charlus came up to him for an involuntary History of Magic tutoring where the tutor hardly knew more than the pupil. This time, they had to read about Reginald Scot and the influence of his work on the Witch Hunts in the late sixteenth - early seventeenth century. God but “The Discoverie of Witches” must have been a dreadful book, along with a few others.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This one says that the witches were evil because they could speak to animals, especially snakes,” Harry laughed. “And snakes represent the devil, of course. Devil is… basically, evil.” Best explanation ever.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Charlus seemed to think about something, “I don’t think I’ve ever met an evil snake. All they want is food, sleep and warmth.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry nodded in agreement.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They had lunch (it always made Harry think about house elves and if it made him an awful person if he didn’t pick up the Hermione’s mantle in this timeline) - often joined by Henry, Kareena or Fleamont - and did summer homework. Sometimes Harry felt uncomfortable that his and Charlus schedules were so similar even though he was forty, seventeen or sixteen (depending on your point of view) and Charlus only fourteen. Still, it wasn’t like he didn’t get a bundle of summer homework after his acceptance into Hogwarts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aside from History, Harry was pretty helpful: he was used to talking to Rose about homework and answering Hugo’s questions (probably the only reason he did so well on the written portion of the Transfiguration OWL). Surprisingly, in the early days he had more time than both Ron and Hermione, due to his assignment to a Auror team that literally only fought dark wixes (since, after all, it was the reason he was accepted in the first place). His colleagues, turns out, not just respected Harry for his role in the War but also secretly thought he was pretty useless because of skipping training that, as it turned out, he very much needed despite defeating the most recent Dark Lord. He knew shit about Tracking, Sleath, Disguises, Poisons and Antidotes, illegal Potions, Dark Magic, Official Procedures and everything else a person studies to become a proper Auror.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His first three years turned into Auror training anyway and if he was occasionally not a burden on his team, it was because of his quick reflexes and fame that let him get quicker results - he was often sent if they needed  a warrant or information from another Department. Ron was busier for some reason, his team got more action and overnight calls, Hermione was reshaping Magical Britain in her own image, and Harry was the closest available babysitter since he lived with them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They didn’t plan to live together after the War.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At first, the three of them were hunted by paparazzi, Grimmauld Place stood empty and was to big to live alone in anyway, they got used to it in the tent, they had similar nightmares. Harry was sold just because of the nightmares. He and Ginny were indefinitely on hold, it wasn’t the time to date other people - and very much not the time to be alone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then, they just forgot to have a talk about who was moving out and when.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then, Hermione and Harry were sitting in the kitchen, drinking tea in the middle of the night after being woken up by nightmares, and Hermione told him she didn’t want to get an abortion because it might destroy her political career. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean,” she said, “It’s not that I don’t want kids</span>
  <em>
    <span> at all</span>
  </em>
  <span> or this one in particular, or that it’s a bad time per say, or that we can’t handle it. I do, and while it’s not perfect the timing isn’t really bad, and we can. But if I had a choice to be or not to be pregnant for the next several years, I’d say no.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And still, it happened, and now it’s not so much about what I want but about how it will affect the future. Not my life with Ron, we are in love and we will be wonderful parents, but my ability to change the wixen world until it falls into stagnation once again. Because it does, I studied it and if my calculations are correct, we have five years at best and then we will be forced to be on the defensive once again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She paused and then said with feeling, “Magical contraception sucks.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There were still laws, and she was muggleborn and Ron was pureblood, and there was public opinion, because the British Wixen World was still hung up on kids - apparently, even among Muggles it was a controversial topic, and Hermione Granger was in the height of her fame and maybe at the peak of her political power, a role model for young muggleborn wixes everywhere. She couldn’t afford to be a scandal. She couldn’t afford to be afraid - and she wasn’t, she was Hermione Granger, she would take a stance and she would fight. But she was fighting on other fronts already.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m going to name her Rose,” said Hermione and then they talked about kid names.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And so Rose and Hugo were born while Hermione was changing the world, while she was freeing house elves, fighting for werewolf rights and getting rid of pureblood supremacy laws. At five, Rose asked if her mum was secretly a Minister of Magic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In 2019, Rose was very proud of her mother for finally becoming one and confirming her suspicions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Harry wasn’t there to support her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The next appointment with Folly was followed by an interview with the Time Chamber Uspeakable who introduced herself as Kara Yaxley and proseeded to ask him questions about the incident, every once in a while writing down something on the documents in front of her. Would he have to sign anything else? After the fifth question on the time device, he couldn’t stop himself, “Excuse me, aren’t you supposed to answer my questions? At least, this is the impression Unspeakable Folly gave me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh.” Yaxley crossed her hands. “What would you like to know?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry blinked. Okay. What did he want to ask?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was told that you get time travellers often. Do you really?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Depends on what you think as ‘often’,” she offered, thankfully not stopping on that scrap of information, “there are three time travellers a decade, on average. The last six years were pretty dry, though, only you.” Yaxley pouted, as if expressing her displeasure to the universe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How many returned to their own time?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At that, she sit up in her chair properly. “I see. Have you read any of the books on time we provided?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Opening Up Time.” It was the slimmest one, with the downside of havign a gruesome title. “Three chapters.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Didn’t you get the books a month ago?” she frowned, obviously judging.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I had to make time for my OWLs,” Harry pointed out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yaxley nodded, her expression returning to neutral once again. “Well, I’d recommend reading the books first but you’re already here. If have to answer the basic questions - so be it, I suppose.” She was not winning Harry over. “I hope you grasped that time isn’t linear… Have you ever heard of Time-Turners?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, but,” Harry frowned. “I’m pretty sure Time-Turners don’t allow you to change the past: what you are doing had already happened. How is that not linear?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yaxley enthusiastically flapped her hands. “Stable time loops, yes. But see, they are stable not because unstable ones are impossible, they are stable because unstable ones got destroyed!” She made a ‘boom!” gesture with her fingers. “And you, of course, can only experience a </span>
  <em>
    <span>stable </span>
  </em>
  <span>time loop because in the unstable loop there’s soon no you to experience and question it!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Harry said slowly. “Are you saying that if I use a Time-Turner, there are versions of me, one of which got into a stable time loop and others, who weren’t so lucky, just got destroyed in some time accident? And I can only remember the stable loop because this version of me survived it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Yaxley started nodding, it filled Harry with existential dread almost to the brim. “This is a beauty of Time-Turners, though. They </span>
  <em>
    <span>guarantee </span>
  </em>
  <span>a stable time loop so there are no other versions of you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry tried to slowly process it. Well, it was nice to know that some version of him wasn’t killed when he was using the Time-Turner with Hermione.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why are you saying that time isn’t linear, then? If there’re only stable time loops.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you consider yourself a stable time loop?” asked Yanxley, looking genuinely curious.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I seem to be fine. No,” he made a similar ‘boom’ gesture with his hands. “And you don’t seem to be worried about that either. So yes?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Unspeakable tilted her head. “Hypothetically, if you live to 2019 naturally, do you expect to see the same world that you left?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry blinked. “Yes? Why wouldn’t I? If everything that I did and will do here already happened?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did it?” Yaxley asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” He was starting to think she was confusing him on purpose.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did everything happen as you remember? I know that Folly contacted your relatives, gossip circles are whispering where, when, why and with whom Henry Potter managed to have an affair,” Harry blushed; it was his fault his grand-grandparents had to go through that. “Was there Harry, a Potter bastard, in your time?” Damn, Yaxley did cut with her words.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I… Well, no.” He tried to remember but there was no change in his memories. “But I might not be on the family tree!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yaxley hummed. “True if you weren’t added to the line of the succession: last but added all the same.” Were all the details public knowledge or what? “Does an uncle Harry for whom you were named for suddenly come to mind? No?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry stared at her, then shook his head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Should I remember him, though? He wasn’t there when I grew up but he might be when I live to that year, hypothetically.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yaxley raised her eyebrow. “But doesn’t that contradict our definition of a stable time loop? ‘It happened because it always happened this way’.” She quoted someone he didn’t know and then happily sat back in the chair, looking content to wait until Harry caught up to her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And he slowly did. “I’m not in a stable time loop, we have already proved that… What sent me here wasn’t a Time-Turner and we are not in a stable time loop. Are we all going to die, then?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yaxley laughed. Harry didn’t think his statement was amusing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, Potter, we all are not going to die,” he narrowed his eyes at how this suggested someone was going to, “A device that sent you here didn’t operate on stable time loops as it’s more and more impossible to keep them stable the longer they are. You travelled for a hundred years and without any stabilising device.” She smiled. “You entered or created - it’s unclear - a different timeline, a different timestream if you like. This world will be moving per its course and it doesn’t care about a Harry Potter who appeared in 1919 out of nowhere more than it cares about any other person.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry frowned. “We were talking about changing things and Folly said something about me being able to stop one thing from happening but not… a more complicated series of events.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.” Yaxley looked at him strangely. “If you know of a massive magical accident or a natural disaster, I’d encourage you to pass this information to the Department.” She waited for him to shook his head. “If you want to stop something that involves finance or politics though, you need to keep in mind that society and people in general are pretty much chaotic systems - small changes can result in large differences later on. You can’t change human nature so there will still be bad things in this world, only this time you will blame yourself for it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry looked at the wall, unable to hold the intensity of her gaze.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean it, Potter. We have stories from time travellers like yourself, this is not an empty claim. People tried to get together with their ex-spouses again, tried to prevent murders, tried to become insanely rich and everything else they could think of.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let me guess, it all ended in tears?” Harry looked her in the eyes, tightening his fists.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her answer surprised him, “No. Some did get a pretty sum out of it.” He chuckled involuntarily. “All who tried to do anything directly with people, though? We had a man who was beyond happy to be in the past because his fiance died in an accident and here he was still alive.” Yaxley just had to do a dramatic pause, Harry wanted to roll his eyes. “He planned to charm him again, thought it would be romantic: him knowing little details about his partner, anticipating his wishes. Next month, Aurors bring him to us telling he is under arrest. ‘Fiance’ reported him: suspected he used Legilimency or Veritaserum on him or family members to get to him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry listened to the story with dread. God, it must have been awful - for both parties.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The official recommendation is not to restart close relationships with people you knew from a previous timeline,” said Yaxley. “Our studies show, however, that friendships with no expectations don’t tend to go as ballistic as romantic or other types of close relationships. Purely sexual relationship doesn’t count if there isn’t anything more.” She seemed to recall statistics right from the page. “Familial relationship is fine but it’s a rare case when a time traveller can integrate the current and the previous identity to keep them.” Harry felt it wasn’t very applicable to him - at least, in the next fifty or so years. “A lot of time travellers try anyway, saying they can do a ‘no expectation’ but often report being unable to handle it, after all.” Yaxley thoughtfully put her head on the heel of her hand. “I think it has a lot to do with the fact that if the relationships weren’t meaningful in the first place, they wouldn’t be important to renew in the new timeline.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry thought it was obvious but didn’t say anything. Yaxley told him everything he wanted to know and more, except...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But can I return to the previous timeline?” he insisted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked him up and down, evaluating. “At this moment, any contact between the Departments of Mysteries of different timelines is sporadical and limited.” Excuse me, did she say ‘Department</span>
  <em>
    <span>s</span>
  </em>
  <span>’? And communicating between timelines, how was it even possible? The questions must have been written on his face because she explained, “Most of the time travels that happens here are the result of the experiments, not random like yours. There are Unspeakables in the Time Chamber that started their work in another timeline and continued in this one.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Answering your question, I don’t think you are fit to work in the Time Chamber. You want results and practical results at that - of a particular kind. You are not cut for research that will take centuries to complete.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry hadn’t met a more straightforward person in his life. Did she practise radical honesty or something?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Great. Good talk.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, what was he supposed to say?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yaxley frowned a bit but seemed to take it at face value. “Yes, I do hope you’ll not be coming here asking if you can try again because your attempt at saving the world came to kiss you in your face.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry blinked. Was that a reference to a Dementor’s kiss? “Does it happen often?.. Never mind, I don’t want to know. Thank you, I suppose, I hope so too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yaxley nodded, shuffled the documents in one stack (apparently, they weren’t for him), stood up and left the room, briskly nodding in goodbye.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, wasn’t that something. Harry sat in the room for an hour afterwards, thinking over what he’d just heard.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He kept thinking over Yaxley’s words and what they meant for his plans, not that they were planned out enough to be called that. Harry wanted to stop the War but how was he supposed to do that if any of his actions had the potential to spin the world out of the path he knew? Did he just have to accept that he had the same influence over the future as any not-time-traveller? It seemed wrong somehow, wasn’t knowledge supposed to mean something?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>What if he killed Voldemort or, Merlin forbid, adopted him? Wouldn’t that change a thing? Folly and Yaxley both seemed to think that there would be another Dark Lord or some other horror in his stead. But were they right? Harry couldn’t stop thinking about how his decisions, made with the knowledge of the future, would make him put the blame on himself if anything went wrong - because it was true. Wasn’t everything </span>
  <em>
    <span>new </span>
  </em>
  <span>in this world his fault? Harry supposed that was what she meant, after all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yaxley didn’t say it outright but the ‘official recommendation’, as it were, was to live his life as if he was just a person, not responsible for more than his own actions and decisions in a way a normal, non-time-travelling person, would be. And wasn’t that bizarre? Harry was called, unironically, saviour of the Wizarding World; since eleven, the world (or at least Magical Britain) was his responsibility and no one, ever, no one in power that is, came up to him and said “You are just a person. You are not responsible for the whole country and your decision and actions won’t affect things more than those of a normal, no-lightening-scar-person.” And if they did, Harry wouldn’t believe them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wasn’t sure he believed Yaxley now even though in 1919 it was actually more plausible.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I want to bring Euphemia here for dinner next Saturday,” said Fleamont, pulling Harry from his thoughts. The dinner was almost over and he didn’t exchange a word with anyone, silently eating and staring into space, making as good of an impression as ever. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s great, we haven’t seen her for a while,” smiled Kareena.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Because of him, said Fleamont’s glance at Harry.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I want to show her my Smelling Solution!” called dibs Charlus. It was supposed to be S</span>
  <em>
    <span>w</span>
  </em>
  <span>elling Solution but something went wrong while Harry supervised him for literally a minute.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But first, father, I want to talk to you and Harry.” Fleamont glanced at Kareena and Charlus. “Alone.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry felt like someone squeezed his heart. Everyone was looking at him, he wasn’t supposed to be here and he made things worse.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They went to Henry Potter’s study. It was filled with old books and official-looking documents of the kind Head Auror Harry Potter had on his own table.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They sat in chairs: three of them but Harry still felt like he was on the other side of the table.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Father, I know that this person must have presented sufficient evidence for you to believe his story.” A brilliant start. “But I, myself, am not convinced. Let me list all the signs that come to mind.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Henry Potter nodded at his son, allowing him to continue. Harry had the same feeling he always had pre-apparition, a physical sensation of being pushed through a tube but not quite yet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Appearance is the first one, of course, but it is easy to fake: I am able of naming dozens of Potions beside the obvious. There’re illusions. There’re body transfigurations. There’s just plain accidental resemblance.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>What will happen to him if Henry, instead of telling Fleamont about the time travel, decides to get rid of him instead? His backstory might not be shot but Folly said that they wouldn’t fight a legal battle for him, especially not if the direct paternity test would have given negative results.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fleamont continued, “I know that there’re no ‘Potter squibs’,” he looked disgusted at the notion, “hidden away shamefully. I know that ‘Harry’ here,” the quotes were practically audible, “is not in fact a relative because we go to India every three years to see all of them. The only theory that has even a shred of credibility to it…” Fleamont couldn’t even pronounce the words. Harry was so ashamed and at the same time extremely confused: why didn’t Henry tell at least his eldest son, since he was of age? But, he understood in a second, that what it was, Henry didn’t want Fleamont to know that Harry was his grandchild because it could mess with the future. But was he really ready to risk the relationship with his own son over it? There was no guarantee Fleamont and Euphemia wouldn’t have a child either way. Is he trying to preserve the timeline?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That was what Yaxley was talking about? Acting on the information about the future that was, trying to make the timeline go a certain way by influencing people’s actions, it was worse than making the best decision based on the actual facts… Why would it, though? God, it was so convoluted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fleamont tried to stare Henry Potter down and was failing, Harry could see it. He himself wanted to be far away from this room. He wanted to go “To hell with it” but he knew Fleamont wouldn’t believe him: because they clashed, on some level more fundamental than any action. Harry’s story was pretty cagey, besides. Fleamont could always insist Unspeakable Folly was bought for this elaborate ruse to get the Potter’s fortune, or whatever.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t like Harry and therefore didn’t trust him. It hurt. It would hurt more if Fleamont </span>
  <em>
    <span>was actually told</span>
  </em>
  <span> that Harry was his grandchild and still didn’t like him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t believe you cheated on mum.</span>
  <em>
    <span> I don’t believe it</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Fleamont said as if the power in those words could make them come true. “I don’t believe she’d be so calm, sitting there with all of us, with </span>
  <em>
    <span>him</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and taking it all silently.” He dropped his head on his hands but quickly raised it back, sitting straighter. “Are we being blackmailed? Does it have anything to do with the bill?..”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Henry didn’t say anything, Fleamont went angry, “Why, father?” then pleading, “Please, just say anything.” He shot a glance at Harry. “And you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fuck.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you have to say for yourself? We… I’ll pay you money if you want. If this is a ruse, just say it, I’ll give you money and you’ll leave.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry’s cheeks burned with shame. What was he supposed to do? “I don’t want your money.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then what? Is it just some innocuous favour that you secretly adopt another’s child? a muggleborn integration initiative?” Fleamont reached. “If it is,” he looked Harry in the eyes. “Please, just say it. It will be fine. I don’t mind you. If someone is pressuring you, it’s not your fault.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>God, what was he supposed to say? “Nobody is pressuring me. I am truly related to you and your father agreed to take me in.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fleamont glanced at his father and back. “I don’t believe you,” he said coldly. “I think there’s something going on here and my father can’t tell me, maybe some sort of magical oath, but I bet you don’t have proof.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry blinked. What?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, the appearance is convincing enough, I suppose,” Fleamont said. “I can’t feed you a potion without your consent to check the ancestry. But, I bet, with all the careful research put into it, you - or your co-conspirators, I suppose - couldn’t know one thing.” Harry threw a quick glance Henry’s way. He seemed to go still; not a good sign. “And if they did know, they couldn’t fake it.” Is he supposed to have some pottery-shaped birthmark on his hip or something? Harry hoped he won’t have to undress for this ‘proof’. His scars inspired all kinds of questions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fleamont drew his wand which caused Harry to jump behind a chair. Yes, he was sometimes embarrassed by his reflexes but they kept him alive all but two times - not that he could die now but it was the principle of the thing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry didn’t like Fleamont’s chuckle at all, even though he could understand what he felt: he wanted to expose a liar who tried to prey on his family, which Harry was totally on board with if it wasn’t him. It wasn’t a cruel laugh. Fleamont didn’t cast Stupefy or Incarcerous, no. He cast Serpensortia, the same spell as Malfoy in his second year.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry couldn’t help but stare.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>First, on the snake that didn’t seem at all bothered and actually wasn’t saying anything. Second, on Fleamont’s pleased face. Third, on Henry Potter, helplessly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Henry Potter nodded, a barely perceptible nod.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fleamont seemed to calm down. “Listen, ...Harry, I might have been harsh. You are just a kid.” Wrong, forty here and feeling worse about it by the minute. “Not the right place, not the right time. I understand.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He made a gesture to vanish the snake but Henry stopped him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Harry,</span>
  </em>
  <span>” he spoke in a firm voice, “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Speak to the snake.</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry shook his head even before his mind registered that it wasn’t in English. Why in the name of Merlin Henry Potter was speaking Parseltongue?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He jumped when the door slammed shut, then he noticed that Fleamont wasn’t there. Why in the name of Merlin speaking Parseltongue was proof of being a Potter? Harry asked this one question out loud.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You are abysmal in family history too, I see, not just the general kind.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>! TW Discussion of abortion, as in Hermione talking about how it bothers her that she can’t make a decision in a vacuum. She’s pretty sure she wouldn’t but it still bothers her that politics even pops up in her mind.</p><p>Rose &amp; Hugo’s birthdays are moved earlier since I am making it an official tradition in the wixen world to have children as early in marriage as possible (and not a stupid decision of some characters to have children in the middle of a war), in addition to a general air of heteronormativity and reproductive pressure. (I also did some in-my-head worldbuilding on sex ed in Hogwarts, contraception and how it all comes together. I hope I won't forget it.)</p><p>Parseltongue thing is a favourite headcanon of mine. It might be expanded upon later, but the gist is it just so happens that people who claim it publicly are mostly dark lords or otherwise criminally-inclined individuals and who would want to be associated with that, so the good parselmouths just keep the whole speaking to snakes bit to themselves.</p><p>If Yaxley at some point seemed on the autistic spectrum to you, all I can say is: I have no idea what happened there but it seemed to work as I wrote it. I like her.</p><p>As I am getting a PhD in Time Travel in June, I can attest that all the information about time travel and time turners is in fact correct. (Joking but if you know any *actual* nonfiction books about time, send them my way, I’d love to look them up.)</p><p>If you are wondering why this is not in chapters: I am tricking my brain into thinking they are self-contained stories and not a WIP. Which they kind of are: each one is self-contained + the previous ones but the previous ones are already finished so my brain doesn’t care about them. There's a very high chance of this not being finished - in a sense of 'all the ideas I wanted to write'.<br/>Btw, I promise nothing but the next one **will** have Harry dealing with Master of Death for sure. I have a title planned and everything.</p><p>God, this note is huge.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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